An independant N. Ireland

[modeller]

In view of the fact we are all in the EU and borders don't exist would N Ireland be better off entirely independant i.e independant of both us and southern Ireland. This has happened in Eastern Europe. The Begians are talking about a split to solve their sectarian differences as are the Spaniards and the Basques , as are the Scots but could it work in Ireland.

[rov1100]

Yes, and passport controls brought in. Because you currently don't need a passport from NI to UK many illegal immigrants find they way into Eire, cross into Northern Ireland and hey presto they come through the back door without any checks.

[mike11111]

No way! The aim of the republican movement is a united island of Ireland. Were what you suggest to happen then NI would be relatively weak and defenceless, and the bloodbath which would follow would make the last 200 years seem like a tea party.

[sandyRoe]

I've noticed that people with darker complexions traveling from NI to Scotland rarely go through the Scottish ports without being questioned.
NI couldn't survive as an independent country. I think most of the economy is based on government jobs of one sort or another.

[steg]

i think NI would be better off being part of a united Ireland, the way it should be

[mike11111]

Your solution Steg has been proposed many times and is the most logical, but the majority populace of NI would not stand for it. Ian Paisley may have retired but his supporters are not far below the surface. It was actually a proposal at the time of Heath's govt in the early 70s but was rejected as the likely outcome would have been full-scale civil war. If I were to live to be 300 I doubt I would see the Irish Question resolved.

[mike11111]

I hope that some people pick up the significance of the phraseology of your question,RH,which clearly betrays your viewpoint.

[sandyRoe]

If RH had asked if he lived in The Six Counties or The Free State we'd know better her politics

[steg]

i agree mike it is the most logical and would most likely be unworkable, as civil war would most likely be the outcome, but if they could come to some sort of agreement i think that a united Ireland would work quite well

"Steg do you live in Northern Ireland or Ireland?" no, why?

[mike11111]

The use of "Ireland" rather than "Southern Ireland", is enshrined in the Irish Constitution, which suggests that that is where your sympathies lie. I have no problem with that,particularly after your posts last night, but am slightly confused as to why you have leapt aggressively to the defence of the British Civil Service on another thread this evening. Someone more cynical than me would call it, "Having your cake and eating it".

[Whickerman]

"The use of "Ireland" rather than "Southern Ireland", is enshrined in the Irish Constitution, which suggests that that is where your sympathies lie."

Of course it is - that's the name of the country...!

[Gromit]

A united Ireland or an Independent N. Ireland would probably make no economic difference for its inhabitants.

Rov1100
Check out the name of our country, then work out why you do not need a passport from NI to the UK mainland. The standard of security on that route is probably still greater than the rest of the UK. If illegals were to get to the mainland, entering via a boat from N. Ireland would be the worse possible route they could take. There chances of detection will be much higher. Is that another made up assertion. Do you have a link.

[modeller]

If an independant NI country is not viable how about if we all lost our independant country status and instead , if as our lords and masters in Brussels want , we all became States in a USE a United States of Europe, mirroring what they do in the USA ? The USA have a similar land mass to Europe with the same diversity of culture and climate albeit they do have a common language . Would that be a possibility ? Could the two Irish States then exist peacefully ?

[mike11111]

Oh dear! The comparison is unsustainable. Each state in the USA has far more power over its internal affairs than that which Brussels would be prepared to grant. That is why a man may die in Texas for his crimes, yet not in Massachussets.

[rov1100]

Quote from the Sunday Times:

///One Irish newspaper commented that “there have long been concerns that Islamic militants have been using Ireland as a backdoor entry system to the UK via the North”///.

[Gromit]

The flow of illegals is the other way according to the Guardian.

// At least half a dozen Garda officers will join their colleagues in the PSNI at northern ports, harbours and airports. According to the latest figures from the Republic's Department of Justice, 80 per cent of illegal immigrants come to Ireland via Northern Ireland.

'If they are flying into Britain or coming via the ferries from the Continent, their last port of call before settling in southern Ireland is the North. They are coming into our state day in and day out through the border. So we need officers in the north working with our PSNI colleagues to gather intelligence and if needed stop the people smuggling via Northern Ireland,' he said yesterday.

Once in Northern Ireland, he said, immigrants find it easy to cross the border.

'Normally they will take a taxi at a northern port or airport and give the driver about £40, that's the going rate, and ask him to take them just across the border. Normally they don't go as far as Dublin. Any small town just over the frontier is good enough. Once inside our territory they can immediately claim asylum,' the officer added.

Asylum claims have rocketed over the past few years in the Republic. In 1992 there were only 39 such cases; a decade later there are more than 10,000 annually.

Ireland was once shaped by emigration with millions of people leaving for Britain, North America, Australia and New Zealand. In the 80 years after the famine more than four and a half million men, women and children left to build new lives abroad.

But in the twenty-first century the republic has become a haven for both political refugees and economic migrants. Between 1991 and 2000 more than 180,000 people moved to Ireland. mmigration has transformed whole areas of Dublin and turned the capital into a multiracial, poly-ethnic city. The bulk of the immigrants come from Nigeria and the Bal

[modeller]

Why would anyone want to go to Ireland . Is their benefit system more generous than ours or can they more easily become legal or get citizenship and then move back into the UK . If the latter then that annual 10,000 would be balanced by those leaving but as you say 180,000 have remained in Dublin . Why ?